


"A Happy Ending Is Not Enough"

by oracne



Category: Blake's 7
Genre: Meta, Other, Post-Gauda Prime
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-26
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-12-20 02:46:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11911596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oracne/pseuds/oracne
Summary: Post Gauda Prime meta





	"A Happy Ending Is Not Enough"

**Author's Note:**

> Note from oracne, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Bang and Blame](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Bang_and_Blame), a Blake’s 7 archive, which has been offline for several years. To keep the works available for readers and scholars, we began importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project after June 2017. We posted announcements about the move, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on the [Bang and Blame collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/BangAndBlame/profile).

I can't just leave them there, alarms going off, Blake dead and bloodied on the floor. After sticking with these characters for 52 episodes, I want to know what happens next. If they're not all dead, why not? How do they get out of the major mess they're in? Will they ever have a victory over the Federation? Will they ever be happy?

Like most fans, I want more of what I like so much, so I read a lot of PGP stories, and can accept completely different outcomes for the duration of each story.

Looking back over my own stories, I haven't written much straight PGP. I think everyone who watches Blake's 7 all the way to the end has at least one PGP story in them, even if it never gets written down. Before I even saw the final episode, I knew about its outcome, and had my own idea of what made Avon kill Blake, and what happened next. These ideas all changed radically when I actually saw the episode, months later, and I never did write down that original story idea; it didn't mesh at all with what I'd seen on screen throughout Series D. Eventually, I wrote something very like that first idea, but the story bore no comparison to the intensity of the episode. It seemed like a child's daydream compared to all those slowly falling bodies and flashing crimson lights.

Instead, I took to writing alternate versions of "Blake." Blake finds Avon before Avon finds Blake. Vila hits his head and dreams the whole thing, then is able to prevent the disaster. Tarrant hits his head and dreams the whole thing, then is able to prevent the whole disaster. I couldn't kill any of them. I was looking for a happy ending.

A happy ending wasn't enough.

At the same time, I gloried in the tragedy of "Blake" and its lesson that no matter if you're "good" or "bad," we're all going to die eventually. The heroes all died, hopelessly and stupidly, without achieving anything lasting. The Federation triumphed. It's appropriate that Blake's demise revolves around his belief that he can trust Avon beyond Avon's own limits. His tragic flaw is idealism, and it kills him, even though the Blake we see in the final episode is scarred and bitter and appears to trust no one.

After years of writing fanfiction, I was finally unable to ignore the way I felt about the episode, and wrote a "real" PGP story, one in which Blake was actually dead, and in which he was mourned. I did bring back Cally and her outside perspective, so it wasn't purely canonical, but it was enough. After that, the urge was gone. I'd gotten a handle on the tragedy, given it limits, made it something I could control.

I still read PGP stories. I'm not sure if I'll ever need to write another.


End file.
